Page 2 of After the Fall

No creatureon this earth scares me, but the thing that sat across from me, stinking up my mansion, was both hideous and terrifying.

I didn’t want to let him inside, but Harper had insisted, and now it sat in the chair next to the huge fireplace in the living room.

He couldn’t sit still, jiggling like a meth addict who couldn’t find his next fix. His eyes darted around the room like a trapped coyote, his bound hands resting on his lap. I wasn’t even sure if the ropes would hold him. A human, yes. The bind would be enough to keep his hands out of action. But one of us? Hell, we could snap that rope like a worn piece of thread.

But what was he? Human or one of us? It seemed like he might be a bit of both, which wasimpossible.

His body was big, but not quite as massive as ours. Yet he was still larger than any ordinary human, if you didn’t include football players.

Tank stood next to me in the doorway, adopting both an offensive and defensive stance. If it came to it, he could chooseto flee or fight. I took my position to be near Harper, who I was pretty sure was in shock.

I wouldn’t let her touch her father. She had tried to run to him, and I was pretty sure I’d bruised her wrist by holding her back so tightly. As she sat on the sofa across from the creature, she absentmindedly rubbed her wrist. Guilt gnawed at my gut, but until we figured out who or what was sitting next to the fire, I wasn’t going to let him any closer to my Harper.

“Talk.” Tank crossed his arms, his voice gruff.

“W-w-where do you want me to begin? We don’t have a lot of time.” He turned toward his daughter. “Harper. You’re in danger.”

I stepped in front of her. “You keep repeating the same thing. Why is she in danger? Why are you here?”

The man’s voice croaked and his eyes looked to the ceiling, as though he were searching for words. “I’m her father.”

“Prove it.”

He opened his mouth but then shut it. I looked around the room, wishing that Jax was still here. Atticus lingered by the door that led to the butler’s pantry, and Fiona was guarding the front door.

The red moss I’d taken was starting to wear off. I needed to find the sweet spot, where I was still powerful enough to overtake whatever kind of mutant sat in my living room, yet still have the cognitive function to be able to understand whatever the hell was going on.

We had just come out unscathed from what could’ve turned into a historical war with the werewolves, and now a madman had stumbled out of the forest screaming that we were in danger.

“He doesn’t have to prove anything,” Harper’s voice quivered. “I’d know him anywhere.”

The creature made a whimpering sound. “I’m going to lose my w-words soon.” His eyes, a blend of blue and gold,shimmered, making him look more human than one of us. “Y-you have to stop them from getting to Harper.”

Tank grunted. “Can I make him talk a little faster? I can get it out of him.”

“No.” Harper whipped to face Tank, her eyes flashing. “He’s trying. Just give him a minute. My dad is a world-renowned scientist with the vocabulary of a Mensa scholar.”

The creature smiled and his jiggling slowed. He opened his mouth, but only a grunt came out.

“Dad.” Harper stood and stepped around me.

“Harper. No.” I wrapped my fingers around her tiny wrist, but she shook me free.

“You have to trust me, Wyatt.”

I took a deep breath. “And I do. More than anything in this world. But I don’t trust that thing farther than I could throw him. And I could probably toss him as far as the spikes on our fence.”

The medieval spires that surrounded the Seattle mansion were gaudy as fuck, but I had always imagined impaling someone who had wronged me, or one of my family, on their wrought iron spikes.

Harper turned to face me. Her eyes searched mine as she held onto my forearms. “I’ll be fine.”

The woman was bull-headed, and that stubbornness had put her in more than one precarious situation over the past few months. She wasn’t stupid, but she sure did some stupid shit. I glanced to Tank, who shook his head.

“Harper,” I whispered as low as I could.

“Trust me.” She squeezed my arms and I knew that I couldn’t stop her. Well, I could. But she’d fight me on it.

“I’ll be right here.” I swiped my palm over her silky hair and let the strands slide through my fingertips as she walked toward what smelled like danger to me.

---